Tapped a couple of maple trees.

[Blacktail135]

 Tapped a couple of maple trees this morning. Hopefully get some sap over the next three days for maple syrup.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I hope it works great for you!  I grew up sugaring in NH, great late winter-early spring activity.

[birddogdad]

i think you are about a 40:1 concentration for syrup don't recall exactly but we used to get a "special run" from our sugar house for letting them tap our  trees back east and a few gallons were returned. its outstanding when made right!

[Angry Perch]

40:1 is with sugar maples. More like 100:1!

[lokidog]

40:1 is with sugar maples. More like 100:1!

     You are optimistic!

I collected 70 gallons years ago in Capitol Forest, I got one pint of syrup.  Shortly after I gave all of my supplies away. 

It tasted good though.... 

[Pegasus]

Bit early me thinks and those are not sugar maples. You might get some a little sweet sap but you need to tap about another 100 trees to get enough syrup after boiling it down. You would have better luck tapping birch trees than big leaf maples out here in the west. Grew up in sugar maple country and used to raid the sap buckets on the long walk to school for a sweet refreshing drink. Tapped some trees in the woods as a kid and made about a gallon of syrup that had more charcoal and ash in the syrup than sugar when we finished. Lotta work and not much syrup to show for it but we had fun trying.

[LDennis24]

So these big leaf maples will produce liquid to make syrup just like back East? Is that so... What about a maple in the yard?

[Angry Perch]

So these big leaf maples will produce liquid to make syrup just like back East? Is that so... What about a maple in the yard?

Yes, but way less concentrated.

[lokidog]

So these big leaf maples will produce liquid to make syrup just like back East? Is that so... What about a maple in the yard?

Uh, did you read my post? 

[NRA4LIFE]

I tapped a couple big ones on my property here a number of years back and got maybe 2 qts of liquid.  Never even tried to boil it down.  Probably could have gotten enough for a waffle, maybe.

[LDennis24]

So these big leaf maples will produce liquid to make syrup just like back East? Is that so... What about a maple in the yard?

Uh, did you read my post? 

Nope! Lol... That's alot to boil off!

[Miles]

In NH we always figured 30-35 gallons of sap got us 1 gallon of syrup.   Of course it depends a little on how you like it finished.

[JimmyHoffa]

So these big leaf maples will produce liquid to make syrup just like back East? Is that so... What about a maple in the yard?

I'm not sure it gets cold enough here to get the sap to as high of a concentration as the trees on the east coast.  Maybe if you went high enough in elevation, you could find big leafs that have higher sugar content.  Tapping is getting kind of popular on the peninsula among the organic-hippie crowd, but they have to hit a lot of trees to make the amounts they want.

[LDennis24]

I always wondered if this would work on cherry trees? They sometimes will exude a big glob of sap that is almost gelatin like and sticky like sugar.

[Blacktail135]

 The year before last I tapped these same 2 trees. 2 taps per tree. Had the taps in from 02/01/19-03/12/19. Ended up with 14 gallons of sap that when boiled down produced 40 ounces of syrup. Store bought pure maple syrup (at least the stuff I bought) has a hint of butteryness to it. The maple syrup I ended up with from these trees have just a slight hint of molasses to it and finishes just a tad bit sharp. I’m down to about 10 ounces so I figured that with this weather I’d better put my taps in. According to some Vancouver Is. website I read 2 years ago we need freezing nights and thawing days for the sap to run but not to collect sap when the tree buds are starting to come on good as that could make the syrup bitter. Having collected sap into March 2 years ago may account for the slightly sharp finish. It is sweet but not as sweet as sugar maple syrup. My next door neighbor has 8 Black walnut trees that are 2.5-4’ at the butt. I’m hoping to tap a couple of those next year as well as my maples.